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South African startup Slide has launched its payment platform that allows people to easily send money to their contacts.

The Slide app is founded by three young South Africans who recently returned from living in the United States (US), and aims to change the way South Africans pay each other.

Slide uses technology to bring down fees and lower the barriers to participation and inclusion in the formal economy, with the app employing messaging technology to assist with the payments process.

“In the US we witnessed the huge growth in payment methods and how easy it was to pay people. So we developed Slide – a safe, simple and free way of sending money from one person to another using a mobile phone. Making a payment is as easy as sending a message,” said Slide co-founder Irshad Kathrada.

“It saves you having to carry cash or knowing someone’s bank account details. It also doesn’t matter which bank or mobile network operator the sender or receiver uses. Slide is ideal for parents sending money to their children and for sharing costs like rent, concert tickets or a restaurant bill. A worker who wants to send money to his family within South Africa can now do it at no cost.”

Users simply need to download the app by searching Slide Financial on the Google Play or App Store, and complete a quick sign up form which does not require FICA. Slide will link with a user’s contacts so they can choose who to pay or add a new contact with a cell number or email address.

They can then choose how much you want to pay, personalise their payment with a message, and authorise and send the money by selecting the bank they are with. Payments are funded using EFT secure technology direct from the sender’s bank account.

The recipient will be notified by SMS and email and then prompted to download the app. The money can be cashed out at any time to his or her bank account with one click. The money typically appears the next business day irrespective of bank. The sender will get a confirmation that the funds have been received.

“As Slide is a social payment mechanism, payments between contacts are as easy as sending a message. It really is the easiest way to pay another person, and as there’s nothing quite like it in South Africa, we expect rapid growth,” Kathrada said.

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